Wireless docking station

ABSTRACT

A wireless communication system for enabling a wireless connection between a computing device and a plurality of peripheral devices is provided. The system comprises a first wireless transceiver connected to a host bridge, wherein the host bridge is coupled to a central processing unit of the computing device; and a wireless docketing apparatus that communicates with the host bridge over a wireless interconnect bus, wherein the wireless docketing apparatus is coupled to a plurality of peripheral devices, thereby enabling the wireless connection between the computing device and the plurality of peripheral devices.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of a U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/964,715 filed on Dec. 27, 2007, now allowed, which claims the benefitof U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/950,691, filed on Jul. 19, 2007,U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/938,190 filed May 16, 2007, and U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/889,379 filed Feb. 12, 2007. The contentsof which are herein incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates generally to peripheral component interconnectbuses, and more particularly to interconnect buses over a wirelessmedium.

BACKGROUND

As technology has evolved the functionality of mobile devices, such aslaptops computers, cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs),and media players, has become correspondingly more robust. Such devicesnow offer capabilities that were once the exclusive domain of personalcomputers (PCs). In fact, some of these mobile devices now resemblesmall, low-end PCs with wireless access to data networks, including theInternet.

Unlike desktops or portable computers, hand-held devices and otherwireless communication devices typically fail to include a keyboard, alarge display, a mouse, a printer, or any other peripheral. In someinstances such peripherals do exist but are either cumbersome or toosmall for effective use. Such devices may utilize a docking station or aport replicator to attach a standard set of peripheral devices to thecomputing platform. A physical connection is made between the hand-helddevice and the docking station, at which time the docking stationprovides the necessary ports to connect to those peripherals.

The primary purpose of replicators or docking stations is to provide afast and convenient mechanism to allow the hand-held device to attach ordetach from peripheral devices. This is achieved by plugging thehand-held device into the docking station, however it is not necessaryto physically connect and disconnect each of the peripheral devices fromthe hand-held device.

With the emergence of wireless technologies, hardwired docking stationconnections are replaced with a wireless connection, typically by meansof an ultra-wideband (UWB) connection. Examples for such wirelessdocking stations can be found, for example, in US patent applicationNos. 2005/0246470, 2006/0061963, and 2006/0061963, incorporated hereinby reference for the useful understanding of the background of theinvention.

The solutions in the above-cited applications enable wirelessconnectivity between a hand-held device and its respective peripheralsby providing a wireless computer docking system. Specifically, ahand-held device is equipped with a UWB wireless transceiver to form awireless connection with UWB-enabled peripheral devices without the needfor a physical docking station. That is, these solutions are based on anUWB link that emulates an undefined type of input/output (I/O) bus.

Such architectures introduce major drawbacks that limit the performanceof the hand-held device. For example, the UWB link requires adedicated-controller to allow the I/O bus to operate with differentperipheral standards. It also requires the installation of dedicatedsoftware to map peripheral interfaces to the I/O bus. In addition, theUWB link multiplexes between peripheral devices in order to transferdata on a relatively small bandwidth.

It would be therefore advantageous to provide a solution that wouldprovide a wireless docking system that overcomes the drawbacks of priorart solutions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimedin the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing andother objects, features, and advantages of various embodiments describedherein will be apparent from the following detailed description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a typical architecture of a hand-helddevice useful in describing the principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a typical architecture of a hand-helddevice that includes a wireless interconnect bus constructed useful forexplaining certain exemplary embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a non-limiting block diagram of a wireless docking stationuseful for explaining certain exemplary embodiments of the invention;and

FIG. 4 is a non-limiting and exemplary diagram that describes thedock-in process realized in accordance with the principles of anembodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The embodiments disclosed are only examples of the many possibleadvantageous uses and implementations of the innovative teachingspresented herein. In general, statements made in the specification ofthe present application do not necessarily limit any of the variousclaimed inventions. Moreover, some statements may apply to someinventive features but not to others. In general, unless otherwiseindicated, singular elements may be in plural and vice versa with noloss of generality. In the drawings, like numerals refer to like partsthrough several views.

To overcome the shortcomings of the prior-art docking stations or portreplicators, a wireless docking station is provided that allows thewireless connection between a hand-held computing device and a pluralityof peripheral devices by unwiring the main computing bus of thehand-held device. The hand-held device may be, but is not limited to, apersonal computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a mediaplayer, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and thelikes.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary illustration of a typical architecture 100 ofa hand-held computing device useful for describing the principles of theinvention. The architecture 100 is based on a main computing bus whichis, for example, a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus.A host bridge 110 is coupled to endpoints 120, a central processing unit(CPU) 130, a memory 140, and a switch 150. Typically, the host bridge110 and the switch 150 are referred to as a “north bridge” and a “southbridge” respectively. The peripheral components are connected throughendpoints 120. Multiple point-to-point connections are accomplished bythe switch 150, which provides the fanout for the I/O bus. The switch150 provides peer-to-peer communication between different endpoints 120.That is, traffic between switch 150 and endpoints 120 that does notinvolve cache-coherent memory transfers, is not forwarded to the hostbridge 110. The switch 150 is shown as a separate logical element but itcould be integrated into the host bridge 110.

The wireless connection between a hand-held device and respectiveperipherals is achieved by unwiring the “north bridge” from the “southbridge”. In accordance with principles of the invention this is achievedby means of a wireless interconnect bus, for example, a wireless PCIebus. Examples for such buses may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,050,290entitled “A Wireless Interconnect Bus” and in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/021,290 “A Distributed Interconnect Bus”. Both applicationsare assigned to common assignee and which are hereby incorporatedherein, in their entirety, by reference thereto.

FIG. 2 shows an illustration of a typical architecture 200 of ahand-held computing device that includes a wireless interconnect bus210. The wireless interconnect bus 210 includes a first transceiver 220which is coupled to a host bridge 230 (the “north bridge”) and a secondtransceiver 240 coupled to a switch 250 (the “south bridge”). The hostbridge 230 identifies the endpoints 260 connected to the switch 250 as astandard endpoint. That is, there is no need to install specificsoftware in order to recognize and communicate with peripherals coupledto the endpoints 260. Specifically, the communication protocols betweenthe switch 250 and endpoints 260 may be any of a high-definitionmultimedia interface (HDMI), a digital visual interface (DVI), a serialadvanced technology attachment (SATA), a video graphics array (VGA), auniversal serial bus (USB), PCIe, Bluetooth and the likes.

In one embodiment of the invention the wireless interconnect bus 210emulates a wireless PCI Express (wPCIe™) bus. In this embodiment thelink between the first transceiver 220 and a second transceiver 240aggregates an unbound number of PCIe lanes with a transfer data rate of2.5 Gb/s per lane over an unlicensed frequency band like 57-64 GHz or5-6 GHz. In an exemplary embodiment the number of aggregated lanes is32. It would be apparent to a person skilled in the art that thebandwidth of the aggregated lanes is sufficient to wirelessly transferdata from or to peripherals without multiplexing between them.

FIG. 3 shows a non-limiting block diagram of a wireless docking station300 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The dockingstation 300 includes a wireless transceiver 310 coupled to a switch 320,and a plurality of input/output (I/O) controllers 330 that connect tothe switch 320. The wireless transceiver 310 receives and transmitswireless signals from and to a hand-held device, which communicatesusing the transceiver 220. In one embodiment the wireless signals arepreferably in a form of symbols. The wireless transceiver 310 controlsand manages the access to the wireless link in either a full-duplex orhalf-duplex mode of operation. Furthermore, the wireless transceiver 310establishes the link between the docking station 300 and the hand-helddevice and acts as a medium access controller (MAC) layer. The wirelesstransceiver 310 is also capable of reconstructing data from the receivedsymbols.

To perform the tasks mentioned above the wireless transceiver 310preferably includes a wireless receiver and wireless transmitter (notshown) that together implement a wireless modem, such as an orthogonalfrequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modem, a single-carrier modem, amulti-carrier modem, and the likes. Furthermore, the wireless receiverand wireless transmitter can implement sophisticated communicationtechniques, such as multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), beam forming,advanced coding, space time block codes, and so on. The wirelesstransceiver 310 further supports a layered protocol of the wirelessinterconnect bus. Such protocol includes at least a wireless physical(WPHY) layer 410, a wireless adaptation layer 420, a data link layer430, and a transaction layer 440. The operation of this layered protocolis descried in detail in the 60/938,190 provisional applicationmentioned above.

The data constructed by the wireless transceiver 310 is fed to theswitch 320 which may be operated in accordance to any standards thatincludes, but is not limited to, USB3, PCIe, PCIe second generation,Hypertransport, Infiniband, and the like. In accordance with anembodiment of the present invention the docking station 300 may includea bridge for transforming data from a first protocol (e.g., a PCIe) to asecond protocol (e.g., a PCI). The I/O controllers 330 interface betweenperipheral devices connected to the docking station 300 and thehand-held device. The I/O controllers 330 may communicate with any typeof peripheral device including, but not limited to, a monitor, akeyboard, a pointing device, a mouse, a storage device, a speaker, amicrophone, a modem, a compact disk (CD) player, a digital video disc(DVD) player, a projector, and the likes.

The connections between the peripheral devices and the I/O controllers330 may be, but are not limited to, PCIe, USB1.1, USB2.0, parallel,RS232 serial, PS/2-style mouse, keyboard connector audio likeconnection, SATA, VGA, DVI, HDMI-like monitor connections, and others.

It would be apparent to a person skilled in the art that as the I/Ocontrollers 330 manages the communication between the peripherals andthe hand-held device there is no need to install dedicated software tomap standard peripheral interfaces to a format of a dedicated bus.

FIG. 4 shows a non-limiting and exemplary diagram 400 describing thedock-in process in accordance with principles of an exemplary embodimentof the invention. The dock-in process refers to wireless connecting of ahand-held computing device to the docking station 300. Such connectionis achieved if a hand-held device is placed in proximity of a dockingstation 300. At S410 the docking station 300 periodically transmitsbeacons to indicate that it is available. The beacons are transmitted onone or more specific allocated channels. The hand-held device scans theallocated channel(s) to detect beacons transmitted by the dockingstation 300. At S420, the hand-held device sends an association requestkey to the docking station 300 with a unique identification (ID) number.In response, at S430, the docking station 300 sends a challengeconnection key. At S440 the hand-held device responds with its challengeconnection key. At S450 the docking station 300 may accept or reject theassociation with the hand-held device by sending a response thatincludes a session key. If the session key is accepted a connection isestablished between the docking station 300 and the hand-held device.The keys used for challenge, association, and session are pre-determinedusing a pairing process which is performed during the initialization ofthe docking station and hand-held device. These keys are encryptedusing, for example, an advanced encryption standard (AES) encryptiontechnique, and the likes.

In order to “dock-out”, i.e., disconnecting the hand-held device fromthe docking station, the hand-held device sends a dock-out requestsignal. As a result, the docking station replies with undockedacknowledge signal. Thereafter, the connection session is disconnectedand the first transceiver is switched to a scanning mode. The dockingout process also applies if the hand-held device just moves out of“docking range.”

In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention the busconnecting the hand-held device and the docking station is a wirelessPCI express bus. In this embodiment the dock-in and dock-out processescan be implemented as “hot” plug-in and plug-out. That is, connecting ordisconnecting the hand-held device while is still operating. This can beperformed without the need to install dedicated software, hardware orcombination therefore either in the hand-held devices of the dockingstation.

It is important to note that these embodiments are only examples of themany advantageous uses of the innovative teachings herein. Moreover,some statements may apply to some inventive features but not to others.In general, unless otherwise indicated, it is to be understood thatsingular elements may be in plural and vice versa with no loss ofgenerality.

The embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as a combination ofhardware, firmware and software and because some of the constituentsystem components and methods depicted in the accompanying drawings maybe implemented in software, the actual connections between the systemcomponents or the process function blocks may differ depending upon themanner in which the invention is programmed. The software may beembodied on a computer readable medium.

The functions of the various elements shown in the figures may beprovided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as hardwarecapable of executing appropriate software. When provided by a processor,the functions may be provided by a single dedicated processor, by asingle shared processor, or by a plurality of individual processors,some of which may be shared. Explicit use of the term “processor” or“controller” should not be construed to refer exclusively to hardwarecapable of executing software, and may implicitly include, withoutlimitation, digital signal processor hardware, ROM, RAM, andnon-volatile storage.

Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included.Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only. Theirfunction may be carried out through the operation of program logic,through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control anddedicated logic, or even manually, the particular technique beingselectable by the implementer as more specifically understood from thecontext.

All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended forpedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principlesof the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor tofurthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitationto such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, allstatements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of theinvention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended toencompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof.Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include bothcurrently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in thefuture, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function,regardless of structure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless communication system for enabling awireless connection between a computing device and a plurality ofperipheral devices, comprising: a first wireless transceiver connectedto a host bridge, wherein the host bridge is coupled to a centralprocessing unit of the computing device; and a wireless docketingapparatus that communicates with the host bridge over a wirelessinterconnect bus, wherein the wireless docketing apparatus is coupled toa plurality of peripheral devices, thereby enabling the wirelessconnection between the computing device and the plurality of peripheraldevices.
 2. The wireless communication system of claim 1, wherein thewireless docketing apparatus includes a second wireless transceiver forcommunicating with the first wireless transceiver over a wirelessmedium; a switch coupled to the wireless transceiver and to a pluralityof input/output (I/O) controllers for sharing a connection point to thehost bridge with the plurality of peripheral devices; and a plurality ofI/O controllers for communicating with one or more of the plurality ofthe peripheral devices.
 3. The wireless communication system of claim 2,wherein each of the plurality of I/O controllers communicates with arespective peripheral device using a standard peripheral connectionrespective of the peripheral device.
 4. The wireless communicationsystem of claim 3, wherein the wireless interconnect bus is at least awireless peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus.
 5. Thewireless communication system of claim 3, wherein the standardperipheral connection between a peripheral device and an I/O controllercomprises at least one of: a PCIe connection, a USB connection, aparallel connection, a RS232 serial connection, a PS/2-style mouseconnection, a keyboard connection, an audio like connection, a serialadvanced technology attachment (SATA) connection, a video graphics array(VGA) connection, a digital visual interface (DVI) connection, and ahigh-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) like connection.
 6. Thewireless communication system of claim 3, wherein each of the first andthe second wireless transceivers controls and manages access to thewireless interconnect bus.
 7. The wireless communication system of claim1, wherein each of the first and the second wireless transceiversoperates in a full duplex mode.
 8. The wireless docking communicationsystem of claim 1, wherein each of the first and the second wirelesstransceivers operates in a half-full duplex mode.
 9. The wirelessdocking communication system of claim 1, wherein the second wirelesstransceiver is further configured to establish a link between thewireless docking apparatus and the computing device over the wirelessperipheral component interconnect express bus for wirelesslytransferring data between the plurality of peripheral devices and thehost bridge.
 10. The wireless docking communication system of claim 7,wherein each of the first and the second wireless transceivers is awireless data modem.
 11. The wireless docking communication system ofclaim 8, wherein the wireless data modem is at least one of: anorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modem, asingle-carrier modem, and a multi-carrier modem.
 12. The wirelessdocking communication system of claim 1, wherein the first wirelesstransceiver implements at least a layered protocol of the wirelessinterconnect bus.
 13. The wireless docking communication system of claim1, wherein the first wireless transceiver is further configured tosynchronize between the wireless docking apparatus and the computingdevice.
 14. The wireless docking communication system of claim 11,wherein the first wireless transceiver is further configured to: send anassociation key by the wireless docking apparatus, wherein theassociation key includes a unique identification (ID) number; send achallenge connection key to the wireless docking apparatus in responseto a challenge connection key received from the wireless dockingapparatus; and establish a connection with the wireless dockingapparatus upon reception of a session key by the wireless dockingapparatus.
 15. The wireless docking communication system of claim 14,wherein the first wireless transceiver is further configured to:periodically send the association key upon receiving a beacontransmitted by the second wireless transceiver.
 16. The wireless dockingcommunication system of claim 15, wherein the challenge connection key,the association key and the session key are pre-determined using apairing process.
 17. The wireless docking communication system of claim15, wherein the challenge connection key, the association key and thesession key are pre-determined and encrypted.
 18. The wireless dockingcommunication system of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprisesat least one of: a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, anotebook computer, a media player, a mobile phone, and a personaldigital assistant (PDA).
 19. The wireless docking communication systemof claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of peripheral devices is atleast one of: a monitor, a keyboard, a pointing device, a mouse, astorage device, a speaker, a microphone, a modem, a CD player, and a DVDplayer.